Why would anyone knowingly self-sabotage themselves when it comes to their livelihood, such as doing harm to their marketing efforts of their business. What many think is that their efforts are effective, where in actual fact, what they’re doing is taking detrimental action, which can at times do more harm than good.
They participate in all the self promotional activities such as running online ads, this to generate leads to attract focused customers, which are geared towards the hope they buy. They contribute to their blog, this to perceive themselves as an authority in their industry. So all the proactive efforts are there.
So if they’re taking all of the right marketing steps, then how could they be sabotaging their success. The entire funnel needs to be airtight, as there are a variety of ways of leakage, as they’re not being as effective as they think they are.
The Need To Develop A Concise Marketing Plan
What a precise marketing plan with a mission statement does is tunnels all efforts, which allows the possibility of squeezing out, while efficiently maximizing time and capital.
What most choose to do however, is to market without a plan, which is the path for the majority. It’s common to just wing it, this without having proven objectives. Every marketing step should have a budget, and a time and effort calculation that’s provided by exact metrics.
Goals Aren’t In Writing
What successful business owners have are precise written goals, which describes the objectives of what they’re wanting to achieve, including all of their marketing activities. This blueprint needs to be established, this regardless of how mundane the process is.
There’s validated proof that those who put their goals into writing, and not just formulated in their mind, has a higher success rate than those who chooses to estimate.
It becomes difficult to develop a daily plan of attack, if there’s no concrete objectives. What’s needed is a clear concise vision, along with a target to aim for.
There’s no possible way to determine what type of marketing, or how much marketing that needs to be done, if there’s no endgame.
Short-term Attitude
Most individuals are reactive in nature, while on the surface, it appears that they’re doing plenty of active marketing. What they fail is to perform anything that’s consistent, or do something long enough to show any feasible results.
Running a few online ads, contributing articles on their blog a few times while doing so erratically, won’t generate any results, or provide the vital measurements needed to tell if the effort was effective or not.
Most often, they’re just better off doing nothing at all, this because if they do nothing, then it doesn’t cost them time or resources. What giving up too soon does is wastes unnecessary money and effort.
What’s known is that it takes anywhere from 3 to 10 exposures for a prospect who’s interested in a product or service, for them to take notice of the message that’s presented to them, let alone buy. Once the prospect begins taking notice, is when most will give up and quit.
No Unique Selling Proposition
What’s thought to be one of the most common ways that marketers will sabotage their business, this without even realizing it, is by not having a clearly defined Unique Selling Proposition, or USP.
Having the greatest marketing plan won’t be effective, this if there’s no laid out concisely defined reason why someone should buy their product or service, this over all of the other choices that’s available to them.
If you don’t know what’s unique and better about your product or service, while planning and executing a compelling way of communicating it in everything you do, you can infinitely market forever, but what you’re doing is wasting your effort.
Ways Of Not Sabotaging Your Business
Develop a sensible workable marketing plan. Then make sure that you adhere to it on a daily, monthly, and year basis, tweaking when necessary. Begin by writing down all the objectives, stating what results you’d like to reach in your business, this in the short and long-term.
Then write down at least one objective for every marketing activity that you plan to undertake, stating what results that you’d like to reach from doing that activity over the current year.
Stay On Course Of Your Goals
Always be checking your progress towards the objectives that you’ve placed, this as often as you can. Make sure that you give your marketing plan time for it to prove itself.
Make sure that you know what your Unique Selling Proposition is, while making sure that it’s clearly represented and stamped in a compelling way in everything that you do.
Employ a mix of several marketing activities, this to reach more people from different angles. Track all of your marketing efforts, this so you’ll know exactly what’s working and what’s not. Never rely on just one marketing strategy.
Develop a system which will help you to stay on track, this with all your marketing activities on a daily and month basis, which will help in planning ahead for future activities.
Create A Working Budget
Create a budget that’s based on a percentage of what your projected revenue is, or the dollars that you have available for marketing, and then stick to it.
Marketing can be a “hit and miss ” investment for your business. You have to spend enough to show results, but no more than you can afford.
Know your environment, the economic conditions, the competition, the strength of your industry, your prospects’ situation.
Create an effective plan to overcome these obstacles, or to take advantage of opportunities. What following a precise protocol does is increases your chances of succeeding.